I don’t think we’ll ever forget arriving into the Khao San Road (where our hostel was) at midnight with weary legs and heavy backpacks. For anyone who’s not been there, imagine trying to walk through hundreds of tourists dancing to booming music in the middle of the street, most of them out of their minds on local spirits and laughing gas. Plus the hundreds of locals trying to get you into their bars, sell you flashing light toys and street food-fried spiders and cockroaches!
We somehow made it to our room (a sweatbox with a fan) and drifted off to the sounds of drunk teenagers and starboy.
In the morning we explored the less crazy Khao San Road and had a yummy, cheap (40baht), pad Thai for breakfast. The first of many to come! That night we took the local bus to soi cowboy… lots of bars, lots of western men, lots of lady boys and girls in bikinis. We sat and watched in amazement speaking to a nice couple from Yorkshire.
In the morning we took a tuk tuk (40baht) around some of the temples. It was boiling so we were pretty happy to be driven around in a shaded tuk tuk. Just be careful of the stop off at the tourist centre to try and get you to buy something. We just sat and talked to the lady and told her we couldn’t buy anything yet as we had to talk to our friends. Don’t feel pressure from the tuk tuk drivers they just really want you to buy something because then they get a fuel voucher.
Backpacking Around the World 